This is a great post by Jeff Gonzales of Trident Concepts, in which Jeff discusses putting in the hard work everyday.  Jeff relates this to his time in the Navy as a SEAL, when he was instructed to “earn his Trident everyday”.  It is a great lesson for us all… Make every day count!  Do your best on a daily basis and try to improve more with each passing day.  Thanks Jeff for the great insights!

By Jeff Gonzales – Trident Concepts

What have you done to earn it today? It is a straight forward question focusing on what have you done to better yourself, your position or your lot in life.

The Forging Process

It was forged into my very being early in my military life and through amazing mentors to earn my Trident everyday. That I must choose to improve. How excellence doesn’t happy by accident. While I was welcomed into the community by my peers my work was far from over. In fact, it was just beginning. I have carried this philosophy with me to this day. Each and every day I reflect on what have I done to earn my Trident. Even out of uniform these ethos will never die at my hand. Getting to where I am today was no accident. It wasn’t easy, but it is simple; put the hard work in because hard work pays off.

Intelligence, Body & Skills

How can you adopt this philosophy for yourself; again the answer is simple. The effort is far from easy though. I break things down into three categories; intelligence, body and skills or IBS. Everyday I work to make improvement in one if not all of these areas. This pursuit of excellence is about consistency and forming good habits. When it comes to intelligence I was not always a book reader. I have come to appreciate the value of continuous education through reading and research. Sometimes the subject even falls into my profession, I just like learning things. My appetite for reading has increased, but it is not the sole source of intelligence. I am a big fan of puzzles particularly those requiring the use of logic. They seem to be the most challenging, but also provide the greatest feedback and relate to my profession in a big way.

Stronger, Faster & Meaner

When it comes to the body it should come as no surprise I’m a huge proponent of fitness and physical training. I take a broader approach to fitness. Of particular importance is injury prevention. I do myself or my family no good if I’m injured and cannot perform or work. The best investment you can make is in getting stronger. It is a double edge sword because some don’t know what they are doing. It is hard to admit you don’t know everything, but to see those gains you have to be outside your comfort zone. This is where you can find yourself getting injured. Warming up, activating my body and priming my CNS for the workout has become as important as the workout itself. My mobility game has come a long way and while I have long way to go, I’m happy with the results. I can seem them on a daily basis both in myself and those around me. There is no excuse, there is nothing you can say to convince me physical fitness is not only important, but required for a good living. Getting old is not for the weak.

Pursuit of Excellence

When it comes to skills it is not just about my job, it’s about all things in my life. My principle goal is to beautify my life. To me it means the never ending pursuit of excellence. This ties into my body and peak fitness so I can continue to push myself and my skills. It doesn’t matter what you do regarding skills, it could be dry fire practice or live fire training, you want to do something that is going to have a positive effect on your performance. Finding a good training partner and working together to push each other is an amazing opportunity. I’m lucky to have some amazing friends and training partners over the years. It is important, almost a necessity.

Life is not easy, it is not fair or even pretty at times. That is no excuse for you not beautify your life…get at it now.

“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” Aristotle